O heart, what did you find in all of your lootings,
in those pillagings where you spread out all of your belongings?
What did you find before you closed the door?
In this ruined building, you still keep making webs with your own saliva
in order to catch flies like the spider of greed. Continue reading “Sometimes (11/20/2022)”
We are the fire of Love which lights that special candle.
Like a candle, we came to burn the oppressed moth.
We attacked bravely like a drunk,
giving up knowledge and reaching into the to-be-known. Continue reading “Look at Us. See Us. Watch Us. (8/4/2022)”
Where are you, O God’s martyrs,
O ones who looked for trouble in the Karbala* desert?
Where are you, O impatient lovers,
O ones who fly faster than the birds in the sky? Continue reading “Where Are You? (2/20/2022)”
Put on your arms. This is the time of war, O soul.
It is getting late. Don’t hesitate.
This world is nothing but a colorful show. Give it up, O soul.
There is a cat and mouse fight on every corner, O soul.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 2, page 362.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (apprx .pub. 5/22), Rubai 792, volume 2.
O my Beloved, accept me. Take my soul.
Let me pass through both worlds.
If I settle down with anything other than You,
throw me into the fire and burn that thing.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 3, page 353.
The Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translations (apprx. pub. 5/2022), Rubai 761, Volume 2)
Once this Love arrived, all other loves disappeared.
Because of my longing for You,
I was burned and turned into ashes.
My ashes scattered and disappeared.
Then, they came back, forming thousands of shapes again.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 3, page 220.
A Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translation, Volume 1 (pub. Nov. 2021), Rubai 430.
I have twisted and wriggled like a snake
because of someone’s charms.
I have been curled up like the hair of the Beloved.
By God, I don’t know what kind of twist that is.
All I know is that suffering annihilates me,
carrying me from existence to Nothingness.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #2, page 318.
A Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translation (pub. 11/2021), Rubai 673, vol. 2.
On the way to Love, each lover must either annihilate himself
or give up his life in death.
Some say,
“Love’s goal is to drink water from the Fountain of Life.”
These are just empty words, O lover, just empty words.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #3, page 226.
A Rubaiyat of Rumi, The Ergin Translation (pub. 11/2021)
How long will I be satisfied by the shapes and appearances of time?
How long will I watch and smell of existence?
I am tired of the materials and creatures of the present.
It is time to see that Beauty of Beauties.
But, when I look at Him, I see my image.
When I look at my image, I see His.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #2, page 316.
The Beloved’s heart is burning for me.
Its flame has turned the Earth’s harvest into ashes.
A candle put a fire in the heart of this slave,
such a candle that it has made a soul of iron and stone
melt like a candle. Continue reading “Fire (3/14/2021)”